3. Dealer Selection

We said: As Evans so wonderfully and crudely said, “It’s like paying for sex.” The 12C is whispering all these nothings in your ear, “Oooh, you brake so hard! You turn in so fast! I can’t believe how good you can drive.” Aside from the fact that the new McLaren whispers nothing (it features Lexus LFA levels of interior aural assault), you’re really not driving it that well, bub. The car is doing all these things for you.

The hot-shoe’s take: Wow, what an amazing experience. I’m gonna tell you, I both like it and hate it. This McLaren raises the level of stability control to a whole other realm. There’s a lot of computing at work while I’m driving and it’s extremely effective in the way that the car drives, but the car’s not driving exactly the way I’m driving it. I even find myself getting a little bit stupid, like I know I have these crutches so I lean on them. They work so smoothly, it’s almost invisible, except I know I just turned the wheel 20 degrees and the car’s not turning 20 degrees. Something else happened, and that something else is very effective, but I’m not the guy really driving the car. It is amazing.